A budget workshop held during the June 27 School Board of Levy County meeting became a catalyst for the venting of frustrations by Board members over trends in public education at the state level.

As SBLC finance director Anna Kroll presented projections for the upcoming budget, highlighting changes under the controversial House Bill 7069, which was signed into law by Gov. Rick Scott in June, Schools Superintendent Jeff Edison and the Board recounted their objections to recent education policy.

The School Board of Levy County and Superintendent Jeff Edison have joined a chorus of calls opposing the Florida legislature’s K-12 education budget proposal and a related bill widely seen as too favorable to charter schools at the expense of the state’s public school students.

The School Board of Levy County has agreed to a major change to the Prekindergarten program, significantly expanding its free service.

Four- and 5-year-olds have already been eligible for free prekindergarten instruction for the first three hours of the school day under Florida’s Voluntary Prekindergarten Education Program (VPK).

Starting next school year, the Board has now made prekindergarten free for the entire day, beyond the three hours of VPK instruction. That includes free transportation to and from the care center as well as breakfast and lunch.

Cedar Key School is among the high schools that have been recognized nationally by U.S. News & World Report as one of the 2017 Best High Schools in the United States.

In total, U.S. News ranked the 6,041 highest-scoring U.S. schools (out of the 20,487 evaluated). Many Florida schools were included in the rankings; 39 received gold medals, 137 received silver medals and 63 received bronze medals.

Cedar Key received a Bronze ranking even though it’s graduation rate tied that of Chiefland High School, which received a Silver ranking.

Cedar Key School's top students in the class of 2017 are Abigail O'Steen, valedictorian, and Ashlyn Allen, salutatorian. Abigail and Ashlyn have been lifelong Cedar Key Sharks; they began school together in the fall of 2003 when they entered pre-K and have been classmates ever since. Both will speak at the commencement ceremony at 9 a.m. on May 20th in the Cedar Key gymnasium.

Kids for K9s recently presented a program to Cedar Key School second graders and students of Brooke Smith about service animals.

The program included discussion of some of the many jobs that service animals do to help people, including a demonstration by Aric of how a dog can identify certain chemicals that might be used in explosives (no explosives were used). The children also learned what to do if they are ever lost and how a barking dog might be coming to find them so stay in one safe place until the search dog arrives.

The theme of this year’s STARS Gala fundraiser presented by the Levy County Schools Foundation was summed up in a short parable about a boy tossing starfish back in the water along a beach.

The point of the story is the boy’s determination to make a difference in each starfish’s life he saves, rather than succumbing to the feeling of futility in trying to save the thousands of starfish littered along the beach.